‘Mafia: Definitive Edition’ review: a gorgeous remake bogged down by dated gameplay

Remakes are all the rage these days. They run the gamut from fully faithful remasters, like Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, to a complete reimagining that simply captures the spirit of the original, like Square Enix with its phenomenal Final Fantasy VII Remake. 2K Games has now thrown its hat into the remake ring with Mafia: Definitive Edition, which tries to straddle the middle ground.

Helmed by Hangar 13, which also worked on 2016’s Mafia III, Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake of the original 2002 Mafia that has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Every pixel, audio file and even the script has been lovingly redone, modernised and then retrofitted into Mafia’s two-decade-old framework to tell the story of Tommy Angelo, an unwitting taxi driver-turned-mobster. While it’s an interesting approach to reintroduce the game to a new audience, Hangar 13’s plan doesn’t fully pan out.

From the get-go, players familiar with the 2002 version of Mafia will feel right at home. The excellent plotline and story beats of the original are all here, just meaningfully spruced up and expanded with 2020 production values – even the order of the missions are the same. Tommy’s time with the Salieri crime family is just as (and perhaps even more) compelling as it ever was, and the chance to re-experience it remains the best argument for the remake’s existence.

Accompanying the gripping Mafia: Definitive Edition narrative is a reimagined city of Lost Heaven, now a fully realised and interactive world that comes to life with the help of surprisingly deep radio broadcasts, which also serve to track your time in the world. From the redesigned buildings – that better reflect the architecture of ’20s and ’30s America – to emotive character models and the sweeping views of the city skyline, everything is gorgeous, pristine and wonderfully immersive.

But for a story about two ruthless mafia families battling it out to take control of a city that’s still reeling from the Great Depression, the graphics also have an unusually immaculate sheen to them. The buildings look like they had been constructed the day before, the cars like they’d never been driven, and Tommy’s suit looks as though it’s constantly being pressed and cleaned. While the game looks absolutely breathtaking most times, credit where credit’s due, it also doesn’t always match the dark and gritty story.

Although, the striking visuals (especially the stunning countryside) do help distract from the grind of the early gameplay, which alternates between disappointingly stiff melee combat that feels more like dumbed-down quick time events and simply just driving around. To collect money. To run away from the cops. To hit a time limit. It’s all just… driving around, which can get tiring pretty quick. The game shows its aging framework here with its many driving missions, and coupled with a finicky and sensitive control system, it can get quite frustrating – especially when the infamous and unskippable racecar mission is still featured in the game.

To be fair, Mafia: Definitive Edition does feel leaps and bounds better to play than the 2002 version of Mafia that’s available on Steam. This writer re-installed the original just to be sure – it’s been a decade since I’ve touched the game – and struggled to even complete the first chapter because the controls were that bad. So, make what you will from that.

Thankfully, the game picks up about a quarter of the way through, with the introduction of more challenging gunfights. The combat in Mafia: Definitive Edition is basically an adaptation of the already dated system in Mafia III, with an emphasis on taking cover before gunning down enemies, but dialed back to be less chaotic and more tactical. Although a majority of the gunfights do feel rather rudimentary most times – or even exasperating for some outdated holdover missions from the original game – it’s easy to forgive because it’s usually satisfying by the end.

Every once in a while, the game also changes up the gameplay with a bit of stealth, albeit an extremely basic adaptation of the mechanic. The different gameplay elements, though repetitive at times, do complement one another and help break up the decidedly linear story progression of Mafia: Definitive Edition. Sure, the game might feature a sprawling open-world city, but its skeleton is very much still from the early-noughties.

It’d be foolhardy to go into Mafia: Definitive Edition expecting something wholly modern – like, say, The Last Of Us Part II or Ghost Of Tsushima – because that was never Hangar 13’s intention. The studio has stayed more or less faithful to the 2002 version, but with most of the flaws having been exorcised – save that damn racecar mission.

Ultimately, Mafia: Definitive Edition is the best way to (re)experience the original Mafia story – and the story has been and still is the best part of the game, anyway. While the old-school gameplay elements and aging framework do betray the game’s shiny new coat of very expensive paint, they don’t take too much away to sully the remake’s overall experience.

‘Mafia: Definitive Edition’ releases September 25 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.